


I Think We're Going Back

by wordsareleftbehind (froggydarren)



Category: Glee RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-19
Updated: 2013-03-19
Packaged: 2017-12-05 20:04:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/727382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/froggydarren/pseuds/wordsareleftbehind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>At the end of 2009, Darren mentions Glee on his Twitter for the first time. Chris is just wrapping up the originally scheduled first part of Season 1. This is a story of near misses, inconvenient scheduling and how the time needed to be right.</em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Think We're Going Back

_Underneath these stairs_   
_I hear the sneers and feel the glares of_   
_my cousin, my uncle and my aunt._

_Can't believe how cruel they are_  
 _and it stings my lighting scar_  
 _to know they'll never ever give me what I want._

_And I know I don't deserve these_  
 _stupid rules made by the Dursleys_  
 _here on Privet drive._

_Can't take all of these muggles,_  
 _But despite all of my struggles,_  
 _I'm still alive._

"Chris!"

The voice from outside the trailer door startled him and Chris tore his eyes away from the laptop screen.

"Chriiiiis! Are you watching the musical again?"

"Yes?"

Amber barged in through the door, laughing, "Come on, take a break from it and join us for lunch."

There was still a jolt of surprise that ran through him with a request like that, the shock of actually having _friends_ , which was what the cast had become to him. They had grown close through the filming of the first few episodes and now that it was airing, he still wondered how he got lucky enough to not only land a role on the show but also to get himself the best group of co-stars under the sun. At least that's what they were as far as he was concerned.

"Move it!" Amber dragged him out of his trailer by his hand, "Dianna's been wondering why you're so anti-social, Lea's whining that she doesn't have her cuddle buddy and Cory's annoying everyone because you're not there to distract him."

"Is he whining about the lack of proper winter again?"

"Sure is."

"OK, OK, I'm going," Chris laughed, "Let me just grab my phone."

"Stop stalking the poor kid," Amber grinned a little too knowingly.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Chris blushed in response.

"You've made us sit through the whole musical, Chris. It's not really a secret you're checking up on him on Twitter."

"I am _not_."

"Oh so you did finally click on the 'Follow' button," Amber grinned at Chris' guilty expression, "Why don't you? It's not like he's trying to be private or something."

"Yeah, but I'm not anonymous on there," Chris grumbled.

"So?"

"I can't… it might become a big deal if he'd notice me following him or anything and I don't want that."

Amber nodded, understanding what Chris was trying to say, "It's not easy, being a star, is it?"

"Star, yeah right," Chris laughed and they headed off to the lunchroom.

On the way, Chris snuck a peek at Twitter on his phone and made his way to the one account he didn't dare follow to see if there were any new tweets.

He froze on the spot and his jaw dropped as he read the tweet over a few times, squinting to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

"Chris?" Amber turned back when she noticed he wasn't following her anymore.

Wordlessly, he turned the phone to her and let her read.

“Oh Lea and Dianna will _love_ this!” she grabbed the phone out of his hand and ran off to the lunch room, leaving him stand there with his mouth still open.

"Chris!" he heard the squeals through the door and only just managed to jump out of the way when Lea skipped through, grabbed him by the hand and pulled him to their table, "Chris this is _fantastic_!"

"Wait, what… how?" Chris shook his head in the hope that it would clear his thoughts and make sense of them.

"Well you'll need to talk to Ryan, get him to call up Darren's agent and make up a role for him," Lea rattled off breathlessly, "then you can meet and fall in love and have babies and…"

" _Lea_!" Chris blushed furiously, "Shut. Up."

"But…"

"No," Chris glared, his hand firmly over Lea's mouth as he grabbed for his phone with the other, "No, I won't… I can't. Oh god just the fact that you think that I have _that_ kind of pull with Ryan or that I would do anything about this…"

"But Chris…" Amber piped in but stopped after he turned the glare at her.

"No. End of discussion."

&&&

Chris really hoped they'd forget about it by the time filming began again, but he soon figured that his co-stars wouldn't let this go too easily. With Ryan's continued not-so-secret favoritism, there were continued mentions of how Chris should campaign for a love interest and how he should hint at wanting Darren on the show.

"Come on, Chris, you know they still have him on file if he'd auditioned before," Lea asked over dinner after a particularly exhausting day.

"Lea, please drop it," Chris groaned and flung himself on her couch, "I'm not going to do anything."

"I just think…"

"No."

"But you two…"

"Lea, enough."

Conversations like that kept happening throughout the rest of the filming, though with their increasingly long days, they weren't as frequent, to Chris' delight. Various times someone brought up new potential cast members for the season they got picked up for just after they started filming the rest of the first season. Then the remaining episodes started airing and attention was back on the cast more than during the break. Chris kept up with Twitter as usual, but still refused to follow Darren, despite Amber and Dianna's attempts to steal his phone and do it for him.

&&&

"Chris! Christopher Colfer!"

"Oh god Amber, what?" he grumbled to himself rather than revealing himself in the little alcove on the side of the choir room set, knowing she would find him regardless.

"Chris!" she pulled him out of his hiding place once she was in front of him and the grin in her face was making him curious.

"What's going on? Did we get the ratings for _Home_ or something?"

"Well, yeah and we both _rock_ , but that's entirely beside the point!"

"What is the point then?" he queried.

"Have you seen _the_ Twitter today yet?"

"No, Amber, I only just got a break and figured I'd actually, you know, _take a break_."

"You never rest, don't be feeding me lines."

"I didn't go on Twitter yet, Amber, what's the emergency?"

"See, he still wants to be on the show!" Amber smiled at him, "You can make it happen!"

"Oh no, do not start me on how I can make his dream come true or anything, please."

"But Chris…"

"Look, if it's meant to happen, it will."

"Chris…"

"No."

&&&

The girls left it alone, to Chris' relief, until the season was over. It didn't come up again until they were on tour, though Chris suspected at least Lea and Amber of regularly checking Darren's profile for any hints of further mentions of the show. He didn't, of course and it was only when Ryan and the FOX execs started discussing _ComicCon_ that Amber dared to say anything again.

"So, boo," she paused, waiting for him to look over.

"No, Amber," he automatically snapped back and turned to her.

"You don't even know…"

"I'm not following him on Twitter."

"That was not what I was going to say," she grinned, "though now that _you_ brought it up."

"Amber," the warning was clear in Chris' voice.

"Look, I only wanted to ask, now that we're going to _ComicCon_ and I know how much that's exciting for you," she laughed when Chris' face immediately lit up, "did you see the schedule?"

"Yeah, I'll be going early to catch some other stuff. Ryan managed to get me passes for more than one day."

"Did you check the Sunday schedule?"

"Not really, I mean, we'll be crazy busy, so I didn't think I'd have time to browse."

"Look," she handed him a leaflet and he noticed immediately it was the panel schedule, "map is at the back."

"Why would I…?" he started, but then his eyes fell on the line that Amber had highlighted, "Wait but that's…"

"That’s almost identical to our slot," Amber nodded.

"Damn, that's one I hoped would be on Saturday, since I'm going early," Chris grumbled, reading through the listing of panelists at the Harry Potter Fandom event.

"Chris, look at the map."

"What?"

"Look at the map at the back," Amber said again with a pointed look.

Chris turned the leaflet over and his eyes were immediately drawn to the two Sharpie arrows on the map of _ComicCon_.

"Oh."

"It's a half hour difference, you could easily get out of ours and catch the end of it," Amber's lips stretched into a grin, "hell, I'll help you get out early if you'd want, fake you being sick or…"

"No, no," Chris shook his head, "I wouldn't do that."

"But Chris…"

"Not getting out early, but maybe after we're done…"

"If you need a partner in crime, let me know," Amber patted him on the shoulder and walked away, smiling.

He stared at the tweet, fingers itching to for once reply or favorite it, but in the end, he resisted. It wasn't much of a secret that he was a Harry Potter fan, but he still didn't want to bring attention to himself in this way. Instead, he turned back to memorizing the map of the convention and re-checked his schedule yet again. He'd have time.

&&&

They had a busy schedule on the Sunday, like he predicted they would. Their schedule was moving them from one place to another, doing interviews and a photo shoot and being coached all over again on how to answer questions. It wasn't like they could give away much on the new season yet, but they'd been reminded to stay diplomatic in their answers and all the rest of the media training he had gone through before.

The hope that he would accidentally run into Darren the day before, having insisted to fly out on the Saturday because he got himself a day ticket, was squashed when he realized the place was no less crowded than any other year and the photos he'd seen were definitely not lying. Still, he'd enjoyed being relatively unnoticed as the Gleeks weren't due until the next day and he'd kept his "clever disguise" in the form of a snapback pulled deep enough into his face that it worked.

When he finally arrived in the hotel he and the rest of the cast were set up in for the night, knowing that they had an early start, Amber immediately accosted him and questioned him about his day. Lea and Dianna eventually joined in and their good-natured teasing about his tendencies to geek out soon turned into general laughter until they realized that they only had a few hours for sleep.

The Sunday morning flew by in a flurry of interviewers and questions and then Chris was backstage in Ballroom 20, waiting to be called up to his seat to face the fans. He tried to peek around the side but was called back to his place before he got a chance to look at the crowd properly. Once on stage, he dutifully answered all questions trying to not give away how excited he really was about being on a panel at the convention.

"Go, boo," Amber shoved him gently when they finally finished and were walking out, "there's a break now and you have time."

"Am…"

"Go," she repeated with a smile and he nodded and slipped away.

He'd memorized the route to the right room, still amazed at how close they really were and flashed his pass at the staffer, who smiled and opened the door a fraction. Immediately, Chris ducked behind people at the back of the room and only peeked out a minute later to get a better look at the tables in the front.

 _This is the closest I'll get_ , he thought as he watched the rest of the panel.

"Did you meet him?" Amber asked quietly when Chris got back to everyone else.

"No, I had to get back," he tried to play it off, "I got to see a part of the talk, though."

"But…"

"It's fine, I just wanted to get in there for a while, "Maybe I'll run into him later, we're almost done."

It wasn't to be, though, as their afternoon interviews ran over and by the time they were finished, everyone was whisked away to the airport for the scheduled flight.

&&&

Second season started off well for Chris. Not only were they still on air and had great ratings, he got to meet and make friends with Ashley. Their closeness was immediate and it only amazed Chris, because the rest of the cast just pointed out that it was inevitable with their similar sense of humor. He'd also got his first taste of romantic entanglement rumors on the show, once Chord got cast. The first screen test was the first episode they shot and Chris rolled his eyes when Ryan walked away with a "no" on his lips.

He'd heard rumors about an upcoming storyline for him, but tried to not query too much, knowing already how quickly things could change with the show being written on the go. Still, he was glad to hear that Kurt wasn't going to be sidelined for the new characters or forgotten in the amount of people they now had on set.

 

They weren't shooting that weekend and Ashley had gone to visit her family, so Chris was bored and occupied himself with Twitter. His eyes lingered on the tweet and he wondered what the big deal was, itching to hear about Darren being cast in something that Chris could follow. He woke up late the next day to find a new tweet on Darren's twitter and the vagueness of it had him more intrigued than he'd ever admit to be.

 

Chris tried to flip through the pages of his script and keep memorizing his lines, but the curiosity got the best of him soon and he refreshed Darren's twitter repeatedly, wondering what the mystery and big deal was about.

 

 _So it's definitely not the next musical_ , Chris thought with mild disappointment.

He'd been watching the StarKid site just as much as Darren's twitter in the hopes of an announcement of the next installment of the _Very Potter Musical_ series. With Darren cutting his wild curls, though, it made him think that was unlikely to happen. As he mused over the possible reasons for a haircut, Chris' phone rang and he groaned when he saw that he'd missed a text from Ashley and then a call from Amber.

He decided to deal with Amber first, hoping that it would be a short call, but once she picked up and he heard the giggles, regret immediately washed over him.

"Boo!"

"Yes, Amber?" he sighed into the phone.

"Were you on Twitter today?"

"Yes, Amber."

"Did you see the new tweets?"

"Yes, Amber," Chris was trying to hide his amusement over her exited tone.

"You know Ryan's holding auditions next week, right?"

"I do. I also know that the chances of him getting a haircut for an audition with Ryan are low."

"How do you know that?"

"Well, he didn't for the previous ones, why would he do that now? Plus, none of us really know the roles Ryan's looking to fill."

"What if it's the…"

"No, Amber," Chris groaned, "Leave it be. It would be one hell of a coincidence."

"But what if…"

"And what if Ryan changes his mind and writes us all out of the show?" Chris snapped, "The 'what if' game is good for nothing but getting hopes up."

"So you do hope…"

"Bye, Amber!"

With that, he hung up the phone, not in the mood to indulge Amber's, or anyone else's, fantasies and speculation. Chris had heard the whispers or a prep school that Ryan was planning to bring in for the next scheduled competition and he knew that it would be the perfect reason for Darren to get a haircut, but he wasn't going to hope. The chances were still low, especially with two already unsuccessful auditions.

 

Chris' eyes lingered on the photo for far longer than necessary and for a little while, he let himself imagine a storyline for Kurt that involved a character that Darren would fit. As much as he liked the crazy curls that were a trademark, he couldn't deny that the short hair was just as attractive to him.

&&&

Only a few days later, they were all called in to a scheduling and writers' meeting to discuss the upcoming arcs for everyone. Chris couldn't deny being excited about some of the storylines, even though there would be more crying involved. But like everyone else, he couldn't wait to have more people on set once the competition episode came up. Even temporary, new cast members were always a source of good-natured fun.

"Oh yes, please, newbies!" Ashley whooped and was immediately joined by Chord.

"We'll get a break finally," Chord echoed her joy.

"Not so fast, guys," Ryan stepped in with a voice than showed he wasn't angry, "the prep school will film in Pasadena," he explained, "so you won't meet the guys for a while."

Disappointment rolled through the room in the form of relatively quiet grumbles.

"With one exception," Ryan continued and smirked when he saw everyone's eyes turn to him, "Chris."

"What?" Chris' jaw dropped, "You're sending Kurt to a prep school?"

"Episode six, you're kind of sent to spy on the competition."

"Oh okay," Chris flipped through the notes in front of him, realizing he'd missed that part, "when are we filming?"

"You're out there for the first scene tomorrow," Ian piped in and dragged Ryan away without giving Chris a chance to ask anything else.

&&&

It dawned on him the next morning when he looked over his driving instructions for the Pasadena shoot, that he wouldn't have the safety net of the rest of the cast for that day and it unsettled him a little. Ashley flooded his phone with text messages full of ridiculously inappropriate prep boy comments and suggestions for seduction, which he almost completely ignored. They did distract him from nerves eerily echoing his first day ever on set.

"Chris, come on," Ryan was already on set and Chris couldn't hide his surprise.

"You're not usually on set as much anymore," he remarked to his boss lightly, "I'm almost worried."

"Just here for the new set," Ryan laughed, "let's get you ready."

"What about the new guy?" Chris queried, used to running into new people during rehearsals and getting to know them.

"You'll see him on set," was the only reply he got and he shrugged it off, used to not questioning Ryan's madness anymore.

He spotted some of the uniforms around wardrobe and laughed with the girls there about how his own outfit made him a completely useless spy. But it wasn't supposed to be a successful spy mission according to the script, not in the usual sense and he was long past questioning Kurt's fashion choices.

Once on set, he kept an eye out for the new cast, but all he could see was a sea of matching uniforms, which gave nothing away. His direction for the first run, which was going to be filmed already, was to walk down the staircase and that he would know his new co-star once he'd say his first line. Though he quirked his eyebrow in surprise at the unusual instructions, Chris didn't bother saying anything.

"Background action!" came the yell as Chris was gearing up for the scene, "camera rolling, aaaand… action!"

He walked down the few steps, pulled his sunglasses off and he was perfectly in character from the moment the camera started rolling. He noticed the boy with way too much gel in his hair as he expected from the instruction and stopped on the mark.

"Excuse me, can I ask you a question? I'm new here." he said his line and almost choked on air as the all too familiar face came into focus.

_Darren._

"My name is Blaine…"

- _and the rest, as we know, is history-_


End file.
